The highlight of Rutger Bregman’s optimistic new book Humankind is his account of a “real life” Lord of the Flies scenario in which six Catholic schoolboys were stranded on an island on the Pacific. Unlike the violent schoolboys in William Golding’s novel, though, these schoolboys cooperated peacefully and survived. It is a great story, if true. It will make a fine movie. It also doesn’t prove much.
In fairness, Lord of the Flies, being fictional, proved nothing at all in a strict sense. But it is also allegory. The space and detail Bregman invests in this little tale, compared to the often glib and superficial presentation of science elsewhere, should make the reader watch their step.